Saturday, September 29, 2012

No links to go with your coffee this week. My mum arrived on Thursday, the same day I came down with a stomach bug. I've been sleeping non-stop since then & eating nothing. I think this is the most I've slept since having Lulu! This morning when Lulu woke me up I finally felt much better. Thank goodness mum was here to help with Lulu while Nick was at work yesterday.

Now that I'm feeling better, it's the weekend & I can get stuck into all the gardening I have planned to do. The gardening never ends! What are your plans for the weekend? Hopefully something a little more exciting than gardening...

Friday, September 28, 2012

I am loving my new paisley nightgown! I have never been one for a nightgown, preferring just a long sleeve tee but this nightgown has makes me feel quite glamorous whenever I wear it. Almost like I should be cradling a gin & tonic is a fancy glass while wearing it. Reality is I'm trying not to spill indian takeaway on it as it's late & neither of us can be bothered cooking after trying for ages to get the baby to sleep. But anyway, one can dream and feel glamorous while dreaming. Photo on left from Peter Alexander's Pastel Collection Catalogue. NOT a sponsored post.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

I am so excited about the Mindy Project, a new show from Mindy Kaling that premiered in the US yesterday. Mindy was a writer on the US Office, also a favourite of mine and she played Kelly Kapoor on the same show. Last year she wrote a very funny memoir, I love her humor and realness. I like her confidence. She's always optimistic and she always backs herself to win. Now that I have a daughter, I think of how I want her to grow up to be. Confident in her own skin, ready to go out and taken on the world, knowing that she can.

I am hoping that the same optimism and confidence that Mindy seems to have in real life will shine through her character in the show. Her character is obsessed with romantic comedies, something I am quite fond of, and has a successful career - a winning combo in my book. A funny romcomesque sitcom that I can watch in a rare moment alone (or during Lulu's naptime) is I just what I need, I think. Now when will it be shown in Australia?

*** Watched it online last night and LOVED IT. Funny, feel good stuff.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

I can't go past an awards show, the frocks, the cheesy speeches, the tears - I love it all. Do you love awards shows? The frocks really are the best part though, aren't they? The frocks I loved the best this year are:

Leslie Mann in Naeem Khan - I love the neckline of this dress. I wanted something similar for my wedding & ended up with something completely different. Leslie's dress would make the perfect wedding dress in white, don't you think?Clare Danes in Lanvin - Bright colour and casual classiness.Amanda Peet in Calvin Klein - classy with a hint of sparkle.Lena Headey - Billowy black is my go to evening wear option. I saw closer photos of this dress from different angles and I don't think I like it as much as I do in this photo. The dress underneath is too sheer for my liking, but I do love it from this angle.Images taken from the Huffington Post

Saturday, September 22, 2012

This post on how to tell you're at a Hipster Wedding. I think the lack of mason jars meant our wedding wasn't a hipster wedding?? You can make your own judgement here.

This post from Briana about cross-fit. Inspired me to get off my butt. If her neighbour is pregnant with twins and doing it then I can surely go for a run?!

Speaking of exercise, September Silmdown is well and truly cranking along. I ran on Monday, did the Shred Wednesday night, went to the pool with Lulu Thursday (a few laps of the lazy river while holding an 8kg weight/baby totally counts, surely?), went for a run yesterday (all runs are with the baby and now include pushing the pram up and down a slope a few times), and today I did the Shred. Think I'll run tomorrow. Hope your weekend is energising....

Thursday, September 20, 2012

A short story before naptime

Our baby is seven months today. She smiles at everyone. She has a giggle that melts your heart. She thinks dogs and cats are the funniest things she has ever seen. She can sit up by herself and she can roll over. She has two teeth. Mr Monkey keeps her company at night & during nap time & she never runs out of things to tell him. We love you little Lulu xx

Eastside houses spotted on our walk last Friday....1. love the gate2. great rooftop space. I can imagine drinking a gin & tonic up there in summer3. stone fence and protest sign4. cute house, also a garden for gin drinking Which is your favourite place? I can't make up my mind between the rooftop garden and the house cute love heart house.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Wow, it's Wednesday already & I feel so tired. I worked the first two days of this week & we've had a few family dinners. Lulu's Saturday night of sleeping through was just that, Saturday night. It's gone from winter to summer within a week. We forgot to call the pool guy to help us with it as we've never owned one before. He can't make it till Monday & there it looms in the backyard just begging us to go for a swim, yet reminding us how grotty it is if we get up close to it. I just popped on here now to look up whether or not I should prune the pomegranate tree & here I am writing a blog post. Oh well. I'll get back to pruning in the front yard now & then I won't even have a chance to think about how tired I am.

Monday, September 17, 2012

So the weekend, chilling, eating, drinking coffee & hanging out with family. Nick worked most of the weekend & went on a camping trip with some mates Saturday night. Lulu slept through the night that night, from 6:30 so I had plenty of time to watch a movie all the way through!

I managed to stick to September Slimdown with an hour long walk Friday & Saturday and a run Sunday. I always have good intensions to exercise on the weekend but it rarely happens. I think the walks made it feel as though I wasn't really exercising, just walking & walking. I took a few photos along the way of interesting things in our neighbourhood, which I'll post in a day or two.

Hope your weekend was as relaxing as mine..

Clockwise: Playing with Dad, eating a mini pickle, hanging with Nick's Uncle, chilling in her pram

Saturday, September 15, 2012

This week has been a little bit of a struggle. We've both been sick & Lulu is still waking at 12ish, 3ish & 5ish. It's hard to get over a cold or a sinus infection when your sleep is so broken. That being said, I think we're all on the mend now. I managed to exercise Monday, Thursday and Friday, which isn't too bad, just running though.

Friday, September 14, 2012

One of the local cafes has started opening on a Wednesday night, serving Mexican food. You may well know my weakness for Mexican food by now so of course we had to check it out. Nick's mum was wonderful, looking after Lulu so we could enjoy the evening together. This is what I wore:

A Gorman dress with a Bardot jacket and my trusty boots.

Apologies for the blurry photos. You shouldn't take outfit photos when you get home from an evening out. And the Mexican food at Soma is well worth it.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Speaking of September Slimdown, my wonderful husband sent me a link to this article on Essential Baby last week and I have to admit that there have been many times where I don't feel like exercising. I know I could drop the weight if I upped my cardio to 1 hour, but most days just the thought of doing the Shred and a half hour run is exhausting. It's hard enough to find the energy (and time) to do half an hour cardio. Try exercising when you've been up at 12, 3 and 6am!

I came across this article yesterday, which says nothing about how much Jessica Simpson may or may not be enjoying motherhood, instead focusing on her weight loss journey. To be sure, she has put the weight loss centre forward by accepting a $4 million deal with weight watchers (I wish!!) but the article only serves to make us think about how much weight we aren't losing. And being healthy for her daughter is so different from being skinny for her daughter. Sometimes we do just have to cut ourselves some slack. We don't need to get back to our pre-pregnancy weight in the first six weeks or even the first year, nor do we even need to write a musical while our baby sleeps, as the author of the article has done. If you've make it though the week in one piece with a happy baby then good oh, pat yourself on the back and pour your self a well deserved glass of wine.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

I saw my brother & his girlfriend using this phrase, 'September Slimdown' on facebook so I thought I might join in. September is a perfect month for slimming down here in Australia. It's starting to feel warm enough to be outside but far enough away from the hot bathers weather to make a difference. Last week I managed to exercise each day, with an hour cardio on Monday & level 3 of the Shred on the other days.

Yesterday I was supposed to meet up with a few other mums for a 6km walk but Lulu slept in, so later in the morning we went for a run instead. We don't have many hills in Alice Springs & so this slight rise leading up to the bridge from the river is what passes for a hill (see photo below). To make my exercise a little more 'hard core' I ran up and down this little hill 5 times pushing the baby (11kg including the pram). Yay me. There were people BBQing in the park next to me & it was really lucky the wind was blowing the other way otherwise I would have been hungry.

Hopefully this little post has inspired you to join in on September Slimdown. Get out there & feel good.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The herb garden has been a few weeks in the making as we waited for the new hot water unit to be installed & the old one removed from the place where we wanted the garden to live. It remains to be seen whether we keep it alive or not, we're very good at killing plants. The rest of our garden is on a huge dripper system that works independently of us and so much of the garden is still alive (we won't mention the patch that passed away from what we thought was the frost but turned out to be the broken dripper). But the herb garden we will have to water regularly and once a week with plant food.

The patch where I thought we'd plant a herb garden is riddled with weeds. I'm working on it but there's a long way to go, so a garden where the weeds couldn't get it was the go. Nick remembered there was an old bath at his mum's from when she remodeled and she graciously let us use it. We filled the bottom of it with gravel, then pea straw, then soil.

The herbs we planted? Our most used herbs parsley, corriander (cilantro) and spring onion (not technically a herb but annoying to buy a big bunch when you only need one stem). We also have mint but it's going in it's own pot as it tends to take over. We're also putting in basil but the nursery was out of basil so we'll buy it on Wednesday when it's back in stock.

I promise I will take care of this little garden. I really want to succeed at this.

Monday, September 10, 2012

3. The beautiful floral centrepiece at my first meeting of the cheesecake club

4. We planted a herb garden

There's been a few questions on instagram (girlinthepjs) and twitter about cheesecake club. My friend & a group of her friends meet once a month to eat cheesecake. Each cheesecake is homemade by someone in the group & the group take turns on who will make the cheesecake. I've been lucky enough to be invited a few times but we'd always been busy so this Sunday I made the time to go and I did not regret it. The cheesecake was a baked blueberry ricotta and brandy cheesecake. It was delicious.

How was your weekend? Lots of cheesecake & flowers I hope. Stay tuned tomorrow for more on the herb garden.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Ah the weekend, it's good to see you again. We're going to spend it hanging with mates & doing a bit more in the garden. Till then, here are a few links to things I've been liking on the web this week...

Friday, September 7, 2012

Guess who slept in her own bed all night long for the past two nights? We still had to get up to her once in the night, but it was nice not having to bring her into our bed afterwoulds to get her to sleep. Maybe she would have gone back to sleep in her bed before this, but when you are a little sleep deprived, it's nice to go with what will guarantee you sleep! But not now. A cuddle, then a nappy change & feed if the cuddle wont settle her, then into her own bed. YAY! Looks like, touch wood, the teeth & sleep trouble of the past few weeks is behind us, till next time....And yes, we can talk about the cork walls (not just wall, walls! agh) in her room at a later date.

Last Saturday we frocked up & headed into town to purchase a new coffee machine aka Nick's Father's Day present & to have a family brunch, just the three of us. As always happens in Alice Springs, we ran into friends while out who joined us. It was nice to catch up with them & nice to be out and about as a little team of three. This is what I wore:

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Our courthouse has been yarn bombed! While it isn't a guerilla style yarn bomb (we saw the council worker putting it up), I still think it's pretty cool. It's a temporary artwork for the Alice Springs Desert Festival called 'Cozy Courts', but hopefully they'll leave it up a little longer. At least until the first rain....

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

At a cafe in Adelaide I glanced though a very old copy of Real living Magazine & found these awesome paint colours. Our new to us house was renovated in 1972 and so most of the colours and feel of the place is quite retro. It's funny seeing the colours in the magazine as 'the hottest new colours'.

Now that we've lived here a while, I think the place really just needs white paint with colour from our paintings & furnishings. The house doesn't get much light, great for an Alice Springs summer but it is so dark. A bright white paint would lighten it up a little. Though it will be a shame to cover the retro avocado colour.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Eating pumpkin

Turns out we're introducing solids a little slower than I thought we would. Along with the teeth trouble she's also had really bad wind. Whether this is related to the teeth or related to the solids, I don't really know. We've cut out all wheat related products (it's so hard not to give her a bite of toast when she's reaching for it, but we must) and I'm also going to cut out gulten. We're sticking with fruit & vegetables and pear & apple rice cereal (wheat & gluten free), both of which don't seem to give her trouble. As for baby led weaning, she'll try anything you give her. She prefers green veggies over the other colour ones, if given a choice. She won't be spoon fed, instead she has to hold the spoon herself. I load it with food and then give it to her. Her accuracy is 100% now, but she'll normally turn the spoon upside down before it goes in, so it's best to load the base as well. With the rice cereal she refuses to eat it off the spoon & wants to suck it straight into her mouth. Let's cut out the middle man (or spoon), with mum squeezing the bottom while Lulu holds the top. I don't think I've ever seen another baby a packet food this way. Has your baby eaten like this too?

I think Dig may be the first archaeological televison thriller. correct me if I am wrong?! It is set in modern day Jerusalem and begins...

All photographs are mine unless otherwise stated. If you wish to use them please link to me as the original source and please email me a link to your site, because I'd love to see it! If I have incorrectly used your photograph, please let me know girlinthepjs (at) gmail (dot) com